Proto-Tjïvnjïs
Proto-Tjïvnjïs is a descendant of Proto-Gigxkpoyan, spoken around 10 000BK in Northern Amalan. Phonology Consonants The main feature of it's consonants is the Palatalized/Velarized distinction. Palatalization and velarization are properties of clusters (even if heterosyllabic) as oposed to sole segments. Proto-Tjïvnjïs consonantal inventory is normally agreed to be the following: ¹ Palatalized and Velarized. ² They may be romanized in two different ways because it helps verbal conjugation issues Romanization note: As clusters are either all palatalized or all velarized, the palatalizing is written only once. Vowels Proto-Tjïvnjïs is agreed to have 7 vowel phonemes, normally regarded as: Vowel shifts were violent in Proto-Tjïvnjïs development and vowel correspondences are quite tricky. Nouns Case Marking Case was marked through prepositions. The most essential being: A variety of more specific lative/locative prepositions also exist. Some examples: fjatjip je wëmj fjatji-p je wëmj hug-PF ACC dog hugged the dog wëmj wjitj sjisj dog GEN 1PS my dog ṣjïw tjïjtjë tëtjiw ṣjï-w tjïjtjë tëtjiw walk-PRO LAT land walking through the land Number P.Tjïvnjïs' nouns were not normally marked for number (P. Gigxkpoyan quantifier system was dopped in Tjïvnjïs and Toovngus) Pronouns Proto-Tjïvnjïs pronouns distinguished 3 persons and two numbers (singular and plural) Verbs Aspect/Tense P. Tjïvnjïs retained P. Gigxkpoyan aspectual system almost morphologically intact. But they seem to have been used more as tense rather than aspect. The consonantal part of the affixes was regular, but the vowels that accompanied them are rather unstable and hard to predict, specially in negative forms. If one were to organize such vowel alternations the number of different conjugations could reach the dozens. Negation P. Tjïvnjïs verbs display special root forms for negation. All positive verbs display in their first syllable a palatalized consonant/cluster. In order to negate the verbs, such clusters are Velarized: mjiw ''(is) vs. ''mew (isn't) (mʲiɰ; mˠeɰ, the vowel alternation is secondary and accrues from the velarization) ṣup je jut NEG\eat:PF ACC fish did not eat the fish vs. ṣjup je jut eat:PF ACC fish ate the fish Voice Passive The passive voice is formed by an affix of the form -wjV-, that comes before the tense marking. It sufaces as -wjo- when not followed and when followed by -jtjë or -pkj. It surfaces as -wjë- when followed by -p, -ẓ or -w Causative The Causative voice was marked by -të-, that also applies before the tense marking. Causatives behave like Ditransitive verbs, Passive Causative There was also a Passive Causative formation. Causative v. Passive Causative comparative: ṣjutëp juṣ pwjitj sjisj je sjicjë ṣju-të-p juṣ pwjitj sjisj je sjicjë eat-CAUS-PST 2P DECH 1PS ACC egg you made me eat an egg vs. ṣjutëwjëp sjisj je sjicjë (pwjitj juṣ) ṣju-të-wjë-p sjisj je sjicjë (pwjitj juṣ) eat-CAUS-PASS-PST 1PS ACC egg (DECH 2P) i was made to eat an egg (by you) Defective Verbs Some verbs, mostly verbs of feeling, behave like weird passive forms of ditransitive verbs, having their objects in the Dechticaetiative case. sjowjëw pwjitj kjeft sjowjë-w pwjitj kjeft be.fond.of-PRES DECH meat i like meat Infinitive Usage and Subordinate Clauses The Infinitival Phrase (VP's with infinitives) are what is called clausal nominalizations, full clauses used as nouns. When such nominalizations are used in non-core cases they usually assume some sort of adverbial value and can be said to be subordinate clauses. Nominative Infinitive The Infinitive has no accompanying case marked (and is thus nominative) when in copula phrases or when expressing a reason clause. mjiw sjowjo pwjitj kjeft cusjatjë COP like.INF DECH meat big My liking of meat is big sjowjo juṣ pwjitj sjicjë cjëp je juṣ like.INF 2PS DECH egg kill-PST ACC 2PS His liking of eggs killed him or He died because he liked eggs When by itself the infinitive may also work an imperative fnju! come.IMP come! Accusative Infinitive The accusative is used when the Clausal Nominalization takes the position of an object. cjëp kjet je sjowjo pwjitj sjicjë kill-PST 3PS ACC like.INF DECH egg It killed my liking for egg Dechticaetiative Infinite The Dechticaetiative Infinitive is used just like the Accusative Infinitive when used with the special defective verbs sjowjëw pwjitj ṣju kjeft wjitj ṣkcusj like-PRES DECH eat.INF meat GEN ṣkcusj I like eating ṣkcusj meat It can also have the same meaning of purpose as the Nominative Accusative when used with passive forms in the main clause. juṣ cjëwjëp pwjitj sjowjo juṣ pwjitj sjicjë 2PS kill-PASS-PST DECH like.INF 2PS DECH egg He was killed by his liking of egg or He died because he liked egg Instrumental Infinitive The clause with the instrumental infinitive shows the means to the main clause: cjëp je ṣkcusj stjiwo fjë je tapj i kil-PST ACC ṣkcusj INS swing.INF ACC axe i killed a ṣkcusj by swinging an axe or i killed a ṣkcusj with an axe swing or i killed a ṣkcusj with an axe Locative Infinitive It forms When Clauses tjëp je jëjkë tkjet ṣjï see-PST ACC bird LOC walk.INF i saw a bird when walking Lative Infinitive It normally forms purpose clauses: fnjup tjïjtj tjë je jëjkë come-PST LAT see.INF ACC bird i came to see birds or i came in order to see birds Conjunctions There are some conjunctions that can also generate subordinate (or maybe coordinate) clauses ''Wjujsj'' The verb 'and then' conjunction: tjatjëp juṣ wjujsj pxja get.up-PST 2PS and.then go.INF You got up and went or You got up and then went ''Cëzj'' Almost synonymous to 'if', it expresses a condition: cjëpkj je juṣ cëzj swë kill-FUT ACC 2PS COND move.INF i will kill you if you move Relative Clauses Relativization was realized through the use of Infinitives with the genitive case. tjëp je cjëpj wjitj tjë je jëjkë tjë-p je cjëpj wjitj tjë je jëjkë see-PST ACC man GEN see.INF ACC bird i saw the man who saw birds As infinitives have no tense, it was left mostly to context. Category:Gigxkpoyan languages Category:Amalan Adjectives Adjetives look like normal nouns, except that most of them ends in -sjatjë/sjëtje/ṣatjë/ṣëtjë (Some don't. Remarkably, color terms). When used attributively they are preceded by the Genitive case marker, they come after nouns. When used predicatively they receive no case markers. wëmj wjitj cusjatjë dog GEN big big dog wëmj mjiw cusjatjë dog COP-PRES big dog is big In order to form adverbs the -sjatjë/sjëtje ending changes to -sjëṣnu/ṣëṣnu and they receive the instrumental case instead. ṣuẓ stjiwo cusjëṣnu eat-GNO INS big-ADVZ i eat a lot(bigly) Syntax Syntax is har to reconstruct, but Proto-Tjïvnjïs is normally treated as being VSO, N-Adj and as havin prepositions. Lexicon Category:Gigxkpoyan languages Category:Amalan